Can You Hear the Bloated Bass on This DCC Pressing?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Linda Ronstadt Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This review was written many years ago, around 2004 I think. This was one of the first DCC records I did an early pseudo-shootout for up against run-of-the-mill Mastering Lab domestic pressings.

I found, somewhat surprisingly, at least at that time, that the DCC came up short, as you will see in the review below. Down the road, Paul and Judy showed me once again what a fool I had been. In 2007, Joni was the last straw.

As much as I admire Steve Hoffman’s work for DCC, on this title the DCC is not as good as the best domestic copies.

The best domestic pressings are just plain more fun.

The DCC sounds thick in the midrange and fat in the bass, although some of that boost in the bass could have been used to the advantage of some of the domestic pressings we played. 1 DB or so at 50-60 cycles would help, but the DCC has a boost in the middle and upper bass that causes the bass to sound bloated next to a properly-mastered, properly-pressed LP. 

I like rich sounding records just like Steve does, but his version of this title is too rich for my blood. If your system is lean sounding you may prefer the DCC, but we found it less than agreeable over here.

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Bill Evans – We Will Meet Again

More of the Music of Bill Evans

  • With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from top to bottom, this copy of Evans’s final studio session is certainly as good as we have ever heard
  • A tough shootout, as no other copy earned a 3+ grade on either side, which simply means that when you find a top copy, it sets such a high standard that everything else ends up getting marked down
  • Both of these sides are lively, dynamic and full-bodied, and there’s real weight to the piano, a key quality we look for on all the piano recordings we play
  • 4 stars: “The thoughtful session is full of lyrical melodies and strong solos; even Evans’ electric keyboard work on a few tunes is distinctive.”

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Bill Evans – Everybody Digs Bill Evans

More of the Music of Bill Evans

  • This vintage Riverside recording pressed on OJC vinyl boasts STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish
  • Some of you may have discovered that the original Bill Evans records on Riverside are mostly awful sounding – I can’t recall ever hearing one sound better than mediocre – so we are not the least bit worried that this Hot Stamper pressing won’t beat the pants off of the original, along with any reissue you may have, and of course the no doubt awful Analogue Productions 45
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • “With the unmatched pair of former Miles Davis drummer Philly Joe Jones and bassist Sam Jones (no relation), Evans was emerging not only as an ultra-sensitive player, but as an interpreter of standards second to none.”

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Red Garland Trio – Bright And Breezy

More of the Music of Red Garland

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this Stereo Jazzland recording pressed on OJC vinyl will be very hard to beat
  • The sound is clear, spacious, relaxed, and full-bodied, with Tubey Magical richness and analog smoothness that only the better copies can offer (particularly on side two)
  • The typical copies are thin, lean, and lifeless, but we managed to unearth some that really get it right, and here is an excellent one (also particularly on side two)
  • “During 1961-1962… pianist Red Garland recorded four LPs for the Jazzland label. [T]his trio set with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Charlie Persip… is very much up to par. An enjoyable straight-ahead session.” (more…)

The Ideal Turntable Setup Disc

More Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin

We’ve wanted to have Hot Stamper pressings of this album of Paganini’s Caprices (CS-6163) to offer our customers for years, not for the music per se, but to use as a handy test disc for those who are interested in setting up and dialing in their front ends better.

After all, these are only practice pieces. If you want real music written for the violin, we have plenty of albums to choose from that would be much more enjoyable.

If you like the sound of solo violin — and who doesn’t? — you will have a hard time finding a better sounding recording of it than this. That’s assuming you can set your Vertical Tracking Angle (VTA) correctly, not something every audiophile can manage. If you can, lookout — you are in for a sonic treat.

Solo violins in live performance are clear, clean and present. You have no trouble at all “seeing” them clearly.

Our vintage Hot Stamper pressings will always have that kind of clear and present sound for the violin. If they didn’t, they would not qualify as Hot Stamper pressings.

Setup Advice

This is truly the perfect turntable setup disc; when your VTA, azimuth, tracking weight and anti-skate are correct, this is the record that will make it clear to you that all your efforts have paid off.

What to listen for you ask?

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Coop! The Music Of Bob Cooper – Killer on the Right OJC Pressing

More Contemporary Label Jazz

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this vintage Contemporary recording pressed on fairly OJC vinyl
  • Both of these sides are Tubey Magical, rich, open, spacious and tonally correct
  • These guys are playing live in the studio and you can really feel their presence on every track — assuming you have a copy that sounds like this one
  • An amazing 1958 All Tube Live-in-the-Studio Jazz recording by the legendary Roy DuNann

Another undiscovered gem, brought to you by the folks at Better Records who know a good sounding record when they hear one.

This is a superb Contemporary recording from 1958. Cooper is joined by top West Coast musicians like trombonist Frank Rosolino, vibraphonist Victor Feldman, pianist Lou Levy, bassist Max Bennett, and drummer Mel Lewis. On some parts of the Jazz Theme the group grows to be ten pieces. Normally this might present a problem for a recording engineer, but Roy DuNann is up to the task! If you want to hear the sound of brass recorded properly, Roy is your man.

Both sides are Tubey Magical, rich, open, spacious and tonally correct. These guys are playing live in the studio and you can really feel their presence on every track — assuming you have a copy that sounds like this one.

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Red Garland – Soul Junction

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano

  • This vintage Prestige recording pressed on OJC vinyl (the first copy to ever hit the site) boasts INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) MONO sound or close to it from first note to last
  • These sides are doing practically everything right – richer, fuller, better bass, more Tubey Magic, and the list goes on
  • Another top jazz recording from Rudy Van Gelder – big, bold and lively, just the right sound for this music
  • We refer to the Dark Blue Prestige label copy we played in the notes you see below, a label we tend to like, but in this case it let us down with sound that was smaller and less tubey than our Shootout Winner
  • 4 stars: “Pianist Red Garland’s very relaxed, marathon blues solo on the 16-minute “Soul Junction” is the most memorable aspect of this [release]. With such soloists as tenor saxophonist John Coltrane and trumpeter Donald Byrd, plus steady support provided by bassist George Joyner and drummer Art Taylor, Garland gets to stretch out on the title cut and four jazz originals, including ‘Birk’s Works’ and ‘Hallelujah.’ Coltrane is in excellent form, playing several stunning sheets of sound solos.”

This vintage Prestige recording has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound.

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Joni Mitchell – Blue

More of the Music of Joni Mitchell

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, this copy of Joni’s 1971 masterpiece is doing just about everything right – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Full-bodied and balanced with the kind of smooth musicality that’s not always easy to find for Blue
  • We lucked into this quiet copy during our most recent shootout, but in our experience that is something we would not expect to happen very often, but we’re glad it did in the case of this wonderful pressing
  • A Better Records Top 100 title that belongs in any audiophile music collection worthy of the name
  • 5 stars: “Sad, spare, and beautiful, Blue is the quintessential confessional singer/songwriter album. Forthright and poetic, Joni Mitchell’s songs are raw nerves, tales of love and loss (two words with relative meaning here) etched with stunning complexity…”
  • Everything changed for us in 2007 with the release of the Hoffman/Gray Rhino pressing of Blue, a record that made us ask ourselves, “Why are we selling records that we would not want to listen to ourselves?”
  • It was a kicked-by-a-mule moment for all of us here at Better Records, and I am glad to say one kick was all it took to loosen the rocks that had embedded themselves in my head

The best copies bring out the breathy quality to Joni’s voice, and she never sounds strained. They are sweet and open, with good bass foundation and transparency throughout the frequency range.

The best pressings (and our better playback equipment) have revealed nuances to this recording — and of course the performances of all the players along with it — that made us fall in love with the music all over again. Of all the tough nuts to crack, this was the toughest, yet somehow copies emerged from our shootouts that made it easy to appreciate the sonic merits of Blue and ignore its shortcomings.

Hot Stampers have a way of doing that. You forget it’s a record; it’s now just Music. The right record and the right playback will bring this music to life in a way that you cannot imagine until you hear it. That is our guarantee on Blue — better than you ever thought possible or your money back.

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The Turn Up Your Volume Test – Almost Cut My Hair

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young

The only time Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young actually sound like a real rock and roll band is on the track Almost Cut My Hair.

According to Stephen Barncard, one of the engineers on Deja Vu, the track was actually recorded live in the studio.

Boy, it sure sounds like it. The amount of energy the band generates on this one song threatens to exceed the energy of the entire first album put together. (Not really. The energy on 49 Bye-Byes, the last track on side two and my favorite on the album is off the charts and shows just how powerful there brand of Hippie Folk Rock could be given the right material. I defy anyone to name two albums from the period released back to back that are better. They have their equals, don’t get me wrong, but the idea of there being a pair of “betters” is a hard one to entertain once the pot smoke clears.)

The reason this song presents such a tough test is that it has to be mastered properly in order to make you want to turn it up, not just louder, but as loud as your stereo will play.

This song is not to be used as background music whilst sipping wine and smoking cigars.

It positively cries out to be played at serious volume levels on monstrously large speakers. Nothing else will do justice to the power of the band’s one and only live performance captured on the album.

Listen to Neil in the left channel wailing away like a man possessed. Imagine what his grunged-out guitar would sound like blasting out of a stack of Marshall amps the size of a house.

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Does It Seem to You That This Guy Knows Much About Dark Side of the Moon?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Pink Floyd Available Now

It doesn’t to me, but I admit to some bias when it comes to Dark Side of the Moon. I must have played more than a hundred different pressings over the last forty-odd years.

Year after year I was sure I understood exactly which copies had the best sound, and again and again I was proved wrong. (To be clear, I proved myself wrong. Shootouts have a way of doing that.)

We only found out what the best sounding versions were about five or six years ago [make that ten]. We did that by doing shootout after shootout with every version we could lay our hands on, starting around 2005. We even did a shootout for two different Mobile Fidelity pressings many years ago, which we think makes for some good reading to this day.

It’s especially good reading for those who don’t appreciate how dramatic pressing variations can be for even quality controlled limited editions. The comparison of the two MoFi’s centers around the idea that midrange tonality is by far the most important quality to listen for on Dark Side, and that, surprisingly to some audiophiles, but obviously not to us, there are MoFi pressings with a correct midrange and there are some without.

Is this fellow listening for midrange tonality? If you watch the video and he says he is, then you can let me know!  And if not, you can ask him in the comments why he wasn’t. Maybe he just likes the chiming clocks and the deep bass of the heartbeat.

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